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You are here:« HUCK Issue #031

Cleveland surf Freshwater frontier

A sun-loving surfer from the Californian coast heads inland to

Cleveland, Ohio - where the waves are fickle and the water’s fresh - tmeet the world’s most patient, dedicated crew.

Text Stefan SlaterPhotography Billy DelfsPosted 16:21 GMT on February 10, 2012

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On November 11, 2011, the first morning of my surf trip to Cleveland, Ohio, local surfer and filmmaker ScottDitzenberger meets me outside my hotel to loan me a board. The weather is brisk in an I-can’t-feel-my-limbssort of way. It’s freezing. Surfing in thirty-degrees-Fahrenheit weather is going to be a new experience for me

The six-foot, neon-blue single-fin Scott gives me, which barely fits inside my recently rented Ford Fiesta, looklike a prop from eighties teen surf flick North Shore. (The retro movement is more than just a passing trend inCleveland; boards like logs and fishes just tend to be more practical in this environ.) Before he leaves, Scott





tells me that the surf is about waist-high at Edgewater Park.

I drive to Edgewater – a Lake Erie surf spot in downtown Cleveland, approximately ten minutes by car from mhotel near Progressive Stadium, home of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Scott has to work, but tells me go ahead and introduce myself to the local crew, all of whom he assures me are perfectly friendly. But hell,what have I got to fear? I mean, I’m only heading to an unfamiliar surf spot, 500 miles away from the nearestocean, and introducing myself to a close-knit group of locals that I’ve never met before.

‘Hi, I’m a surfer from Los Angeles,’ I imagine myself saying, ‘I’ve come to surf your… lake.’ In my mind, thintroduction is closely followed by a quick tour of the bottom of Lake Erie, viewed from my sinking Fiesta.Regardless, I try to remain optimistic.

Within fifteen minutes of arriving at Edgewater, it starts to rain. The wind has picked up to a surfboard-tossinggale, and I have already made two new surfing friends: Rich Stack and Brian Willse. Without even knowingme, they share their knowledge of the lake, and offer the use of their gear. I end up borrowing Rich’s seven-foDewey Weber, which, I am told, is perfect for the mushy rollers this morning. The man is beyond stoked; helaughs and smiles incessantly, even while he suits up in the freezing rain. I opt to suit up inside my heated car

The lake is the colour of chocolate milk and as I walk down to the water, wet autumn leaves cling to mywetsuit. Down the shoreline, I notice a large sewer run-off point. No one mentions anything about pollutioneven though, later, I find out that Edgewater is quite capable of producing a vast assortment of pungent, eye-watering odours.

I paddle out and it begins to rain harder. Despite the layers of neoprene I’m wearing (4/3mm with a hood,booties and gloves), the rain stings my face. I look back at the muddy shore, which is now, surprisingly, white“Hey Brian, what’s that?” I point to the pale distance. “That? Oh… that’s sleet,” he says.

Well… that’s new.

The surf, though small, is fun. All of my worries about pollution and hypothermia melt away after the first

wave. It seems illogical, but here I am, surfing Lake Erie. At that moment, the possibilities of scoring epicwaves on the Great Lakes seem limitless. I paddle over to Rich, who is still very visibly stoked. “Hey, the surfout here has potential, doesn’t it?” I ask, enthusiastically. “Nah,” says Rich. “It never really gets that good. Buit’s good practice… and at least you’re surfing.”

Optimism is popular in Cleveland.

Some History

Surfing is not new to the Great Lakes. Due to their immense size and propensity for powerful wind swells, theLakes are able to produce surf year-round. In fact, according to Matt Warshaw’s The Encyclopedia of Surfing

surfers have been riding waves on the Great Lakes since the 1940s (some locals even believe that the Lakeswere surfed sometime around WWI). Lake Erie has a number of surf breaks in all three of its north-facing shostates: Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. In his book Surfing the Great Lakes, P.L. Strazz estimates that as o2000 there was a population of about 750 surfers in the Great Lakes, with Lake Michigan and Lake Erie beingthe most popular, respectively.

Compared to the East Coast though, surfing on the Great Lakes is still in its adolescent phase. According toWarshaw’s Encyclopedia, the state of Virginia has over 10,000 surfers — arguably more than the entire Great





Lakes area combined.

So, why’s this part of the world slow to fully embrace wave-riding fever? Well, it’s not easy to surf the GreatLakes. The waves are fickle and extremely unpredictable. Conditions are often brutal: freezing temperatures,extreme weather, and poor wave quality are just some of the difficulties surfers face on a regular basis. Surfinon the Lakes, especially in Cleveland, requires a crazy level of patience and dedication. It requires a differentbreed of surfer; a freshwater creature that’s uniquely divergent from its saltwater cousins.

I was first introduced to the Cleveland surf scene through Scott’s appropriately named film Out of Place. In thdocumentary, released in January 2011, Scott explores surfing life in Cleveland. The surfers he follows run thgamut professionally: from artists to lawyers to blue-collar workers. Their personalities are unique and diverseyet they are all anchored by this common love. Some sacrifice quite a bit for their passion, forsaking sleep fordays on end just to catch some waves. They chase fleeting waves up and down the coast of Lake Erie, oftendriving hours at a time.

Finding Waves

A day after my first dip in the water, local surfer and shaper Vince Labbe (who heads up a small, bespokecompany NoNaNalu.com), Scott and I make our way to Mentor Headlands Beach, about half-an-hour fromCleveland, to check out the waves. We originally met up at Edgewater again, but the surf was pretty meagre abest. Vince says the Headlands (a large, sandy beachbreak) will probably have something a bit better, so we seoff north. The sky is gunmetal grey, and a light rain pitter-patters on the windshield.

“Sun and surf don’t usually go together here,” says Vince, who goes on to explain that cold, wet weather is agood sign; it means that waves are brewing on the lake. If an air front (mass of air) comes in that is colder thanthe average temperature of the lake, it can cause the water to stir up. Generally, the waves on the Great Lakesare created by local storms, and require a constant wind (lasting five hours or more) blowing over at least fiftymiles of water.

Vince’s van is packed with boards, including a ‘Zuma Jay’ longboard, which has found its way across thecontinent from Malibu. Jazz plays on the radio and Scott sits wedged between the boards, chatting with meabout some of the surf trips he and Vince have gone on together.





The two surfers first met at the University of Akron, Ohio, in the early nineties. Both had heard rumours of surfing on Lake Erie, and hoped one day to find waves. During a sizeable storm, they drove north to Clevelandand were surprised to discover not only waves, but other surfers as well. “We exist in a lull… sometimes, wejust get lucky,” says Vince as he tries to find a way to pass the car ahead of us. “You can’t plan your sessionahead of time. It’s a total shot in the dark, because it’s not consistent. The report can say ten-to-twelve feet, buit could be totally flat.”

Scott explains that the NOAA forecast program that they (and the Coastguard) use to check surf conditions isoften inaccurate. Ohio sits in the middle of a jet stream, which runs parallel to the lake and creates unpredictabweather patterns. “It’s just a matter of luck,” says Scott.

When we finally arrive at Headlands, I’m disappointed to see that the surf doesn’t quite match the beauty of thbeach — it’s dismal at best. The wind is blowing hard out of the northwest, and the waves are jumbled andmessy. Vince is bummed. With less than an hour of sunlight left, he hustles us to get back into the van, and wdrive back to Cleveland.

“Headlands is the nicest beach in Ohio; clean sand and clean water,” says Vince. “Edgewater, though, is acesspool. It’s like swimming in a toilet bowl because of the current. Trash from the city will get pushed in andcircle constantly.” They point out that the same current can cause a “fuel smell” to linger at Edgewater for lonperiods of time.

“We still get attention for being out here,” says Vince, referring to the gaze of non-surfers. “It’s like being a zoanimal with people coming to watch you. You could be out on the water on a good day, and someone will stilcome up to you on the beach and say, ‘What are you doing? You can’t surf here!’”

The hardy surfers tell me that the largest wave they’ve ever caught on the Lake was around overhead, thoughthey’ve seen bigger. And the average drive for a surf check varies, they say, with some surfers choosing to staclose to Edgewater, and others trekking for hours to breaks in Buffalo, New York, and Ontario, Canada.

We finally make it back to Edgewater and the sun is close to setting. “Historically speaking,” says Scott,“people in Cleveland are really separated from the beach. They just don’t go to the beach here; they go toFlorida or North Carolina.” Much of the Lake Erie coastline (at least around Cleveland) is heavilyindustrialised, making public access difficult in some areas.





I ask them about their thoughts on Cleveland. The steel industry played a key part in the city’s economy sincethe mid-1800s, but during the 1970s it faltered substantially. The city fell victim to deindustrialisation, andnumerous manufacturing companies left for more profitable locales. Unemployment rose, and a populationdecline quickly followed suit. So, has it improved much in the forty years since? “This city was built to begreat, but it’s not that kind of place anymore,” confirms Scott. Vince chips in: “But the people are fun!”

The waves in Edgewater are knee-high and slushy, and the temperature is steadily dropping. While we stand

there, looking out over the lake, Rich, the enthusiastic surfer from my first session, pulls up. Everyone greetsone another, and talks about the surf. Rich suggests (smiling as always) that I paddle out with him. I don’t seemuch worth catching, and I’m still frozen from my previous surf, so I offer to paddle out with him the next daHe shrugs, laughs, and starts rummaging through his truck.

As I drive off, the sun now barely visible, Rich is just starting to suit up.

Here to stay?

Will Cleveland become the next big surfing destination? Well, probably not. After my initial surf sessions, Idrive up and down the Erie coast several times looking for surf. The largest wave I ever find is an awe-inspirinankle-slapper. Scott says that, “finding waves out here is like finding water in the desert. It makes surfing inCleveland that much more special.” And I couldn’t agree with him more.

Before I head back to LA, I meet up with a number of other local surfers. We eat hot dogs at a joint calledHappy Dog and talk about football, the Mystery Science Fiction Theater 3000 cult B-movies, California girlsand surf trips. They tell me about the Cleveland Surfrider chapter they’re trying to start to help clean up thelocal beaches. I also learn that many of them have been offered the opportunity to leave Cleveland, and relocato consistent-surf spots like California or Hawaii. Nevertheless, they often choose to stay, most of the timebecause of family or work.

Cleveland surfers are unfailingly optimistic. It was difficult for me to remain stoked after so many flat surf checks, and I was only there for a week. Some of the surfers have been there for decades, and they’re stillhooked on the ride. It may be far from paradise, but the Cleveland surfers make surfing worthwhile in Ohio.Their stoke and dedication is infectious.

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Cleveland surf (text) by Stefan Slater is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

3.0 Unported License.

Post tagged with: #cleveland, #edgewater, #lake erie, #lake michigan, #Matt Warshaw, #north shore, #Ohio, #l strazz, #Scott Ditzenberger, #surfing, #surfing the great lakes, #The Encyclopedia of Surfing

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